Nice work! I agree with all your points except ...
robk
- It takes about 1 minute for the air temperature after the intercooler to reduce back down (close to) the typical cruise temperature. This time would be reduced if the vehicle speed was higher, increasing the air flow to the heat exchangers.
I think what you're seeing here is the effect of the thermal inertia of your sensors. Even supposed "fast response" sensors exhibit significant inertia, and this is somewhat increased with lower airspeeds. You'll notice that your pre and post intercooler temps follow an almost identical curve, despite the fact that the intercooler core temperature is remaining stable. I say this because the core temperature very closely approximates the water temperature due to the huge water/aluminium junction area (very low thermal resistance), thermal conductivity of aluminium and constant water flow. If the core temperature was increasing significantly you'd see less difference between the in/out temps, and this is not occurring.
Back to the sensor, when the airflow is high (lots of boost and engine speed) it reacts quickly because the sensing element surface is always in contact with air that has not cooled significantly due to the contact with the element. When airflow is low, a cushioning layer of air forms, increasing the thermal resistance of the air/element boundary in turn increasing its reaction time. This is why you see the temperature rise quickly but drop more slowly - the sensor is lagging the air temperature at a rate somewhere inversely proportional to flow.
Which brings me to my point. Better airflow through your heat exchangers won't have any effect on this, because it's not the water that needs to be cooled more quickly - it's remaining cool indicating that the heat exchangers are already working effectively.